College Football Pick: Kansas State vs Oklahoma State

Kansas State entered last weekend’s showdown with Oklahoma undefeated, but the Sooners ran them right off their home field. The Wildcats will be looking to turn the tables in this one. Oklahoma State is 8-0 and ranked number three in the BCS standings. The Cowboys are serious national title contenders, and they cannot afford a slip up in any of their remaining games. This will be played under the lights in Stillwater.

Kansas State’s offense is run by quarterback Collin Klein. Klein is a quarterback who likes to run it first, and he has been very effective on the ground. Klein has already run for 16 touchdowns this season. He still needs to improve his passing accuracy, but he has done a good job taking care of the football. Klein has thrown just three interceptions in 154 attempts this year. John Hubert is the Wildcats primary running back. He is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. The team lacks a real play maker on the outside. Kansas State is scoring 31.5 points per game this year.

The Wildcats defense has been great against the run, but terrible against the pass. Landry Jones exposed this secondary in a big way last weekend. Jones threw for 505 yards in last week’s game against Kansas State. The bad news for this unit is Brandon Weeden and the Cowboys passing attack is just as good as the Sooners passing game. If they are going to stay in the game, Kansas State must get pressure on Weeden.

Oklahoma State had one close call at Texas A&M, but other than that they have been rolling right through everyone they have played this year. Brandon Weeden is a 28 year old senior quarterback for the Cowboys. Weeden knows this offense like the back of his hand, and it shows by the decisions he makes with the football. Weeden is completing 71% of his passes, and he already has 22 touchdown passes this year. It doesn’t hurt that he has arguably the best receiver in the nation on the outside. Justin Blackmon has 74 catches and 10 touchdowns in 2011. While they don’t normally get as much attention, Justin Randle and Jeremy Smith are racking up huge numbers in the backfield. Smith is averaging 7.5 yards per carry and Randle is picking up 6.2 yards per carry. The Cowboys are second in the nation in points scored per contest at 49.9.

Oklahoma State’s defense is definitely a bit of a liability. This is a unit that is allowing 456 total yards per game. They do get after the quarterback well, and they have done a nice job forcing turnovers. At some point this defense needs to become more of a shutdown defense, or they are probably going to hurt this team in a critical moment.

Oklahoma State’s offense should absolutely pick Kansas State apart in this game. At the same time, Kansas State should put up quite a few points here too. This one should be high scoring.

Kyle Hunter

is full-timesports writer and sports handicapper. You simply won’t find someone who loves sports more than Kyle. Kyle considers college football and college basketball his two favorite sports. Kyle has earned many accolades for his highly successful handicapping, and he writes full-time for many top sports websites. Keep an eye out for high quality free sports analysis from Kyle!